CHRISTMAS KICKSTART - CHALLENGE #2

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

As you can probably tell from my lack of posts this week the weddings for this year (and next) are already getting underway and I have been busy making samples for couples I met at the fayre the other Sunday .. .. as well as getting a batch of invites finished ready for collecting at the weekend.

Is it just me or does Christmas feel like a lifetime ago already? 

But busy or not, I am determined to keep my Christmas card promise going and have made a creation this week for entering into the next Christmas Kickstart Challenge.  

The theme for this fortnight is "Bundle Up" .. .. to keep those winter chills at bay .. .. and straight away I knew which image I would be using .. .. .. my cute and lovely "snowy" stamp! 

So here we go:

 This used:

Image:  Penny Black "2521K" Snowy and the matching die for cutting.

Sentiment:  Penny Black "30-316" Season's Gifts

Backing Papers:  First Edition Paper Pad "All hat Glistens
Little Holly Sprig comes alongside:  X-Cut Merry Christmas Die
Dashed Die for snow - unbranded from Ebay
Christmas Tree Die .. .. think it was"Cut and Make" from the Range .. .. a whole £1 and I love it!!!
ProMarkers
Crystal Glamour Dust
Gems and Pearls
White Gel Pen
Snowflakes from my snowflake box

I am also entering my card into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge for January.  The theme is always "anything goes" but with an optional theme of "something new" if you want to bring that into the equation too.  The backing paper is my "new" element.

and also

The Winter Wonderland Challenge where the theme for January is "It's Snowtime" so you need to have snowmen or snowflakes on your creation.

So that is me for today.  Definitely a day for getting bundled up here!!  The ice still hasn't melted from my car yet .. .. so I will need to make sure Mum is wrapped up well today .. .. certainly a lot more than Snowy snowman is!!

Hopefully catch you again soon .. .. but in the meantime that is Christmas card number 2 into the box!!  Yay!!!

SUNDAY SNIPPETS

Hi Everyone

Happy Sunday!

I hope you have all had a good week .. .. and if not that the coming week is going to be much better for you!

Another new years resolution is coming into play today .. .. which is to get back to taking part in Pixie's  Snippets Playground Challenge in an effort to cull some of my snippets .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

AGAIN!  

I have rather fell by the wayside and ashamedly hardly visited the playground at all last year (sorry Miss Di) .. .. in fact my posting in general suffered last year.  But to be fair it was a very unusual year with Mum being so poorly and the whole dynamics and priorities of my life changed.  But thankfully things seem to have now settled into a routine and provided Mum continues to behave herself things should be good going forward.

I find it hard to believe that Di has been admirably in charge of the Playground for 7 years (renamed to Pixie's Snippets Playground).  It only seems like yesterday I handed the keys over .. .. as you will read in my very last snippet post here

It all started as a new years resolution in January 2011 when I began my own personal mission to just use "leftovers" on a Sunday and I gave myself the challenge of doing this for a whole year.  Little knowing how it would take off and be enjoyed by so many of you lovely blog buddies who played along.  No Mr Linky for me then .. .. I would link to everyone's entries within my blog post.  Oh .. .. I remember it well. It took me ages some weeks LOL!!!

Mr Linky more than likely existed .. .. but I would probably have been too frightened to try and use it in those days.

Di has really worked wonders with the challenge and has made it far more fun and interesting than I could ever have done.  She is a true wonder and has built up a lovely band of playground followers .. .. and is still finding new ones participating into the challenge most weeks!  

I revealed the extent of my "snippets" at the start of my mission in 2011 and must admit by the end of the year they looked much more impressive.  But oh my word!!!  If you saw my snippets now .. .. .. well I am sure I would die of embarrassment.   

The challenge with Di is fortnightly but I am still going to "try" and post every Sunday .. .. one week entering the challenge and the other week just making with snippets .. .. just because I need to.

So here we go with this week's effort .. .. .. designed for Valentine's Day

the insert will simply say "Always"  .. .. "With my love on Valentine's Day".

As before I am still going to be lazy on a Sunday and not list my ingredients .. .. but if there is anything you want to know then please just shout and I will do my best to help.

Before I go though I would sincerely like to thank Di for all of her hard work over the past seven years .. .. and for being so brave in taking the challenge on.  You have been .. . and still are .. an absolute star!!!

BUTTERFLY CHALLENGE

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

Can't believe the week is flying by so quickly!  But at least I am back to knowing what day it is .. .. which is always a bonus.

As suspected there was no "playtime" available yesterday.  It was weddings all the way, right into the evening.  

But I "needed" a card today so before the day took hold I created this little make using the guidelines provided by the lovely Mrs A over at the Butterfly Challenge.  I haven't managed to use all the elements on the wheel .. .. I am missing one .. .. but am happy with my selections which were:

Image (mine was stamped and heat embossed but you can use a digi image too)
Colours:  Ivory, Imperial Purple and  Iceburg
Include a Die Cut
and of course the compulsory element  .. .. ..  A BUTTERFLY

This used:

Image:  Crafter's Companion "Flutterby"
Sentiment:  Penny Black "Sentiment Collection"  30-350
Backing Paper:  First Edition Paper "Wild Flower"
Winsor and Newton Watercolours
Crystal Glamour Dust
Flat backed pearls
My Trusty Sewing Machine
Oooo .. .. and have you found the teeny tiny die-cut?  LOL!!!

and that is me for today. 

Back to the wedding work now before heading off to Mum later.

TEENY TINY TUESDAY

Hi Everyone

Happy Tuesday!  I hope your day has gone well.

We had to revert back to super early alarms in the House of Hearts this morning as it was Mr Heart's first day back at work after the Christmas/New Year break (boo hoo!) - a bit of a shock to the system that's for sure!  So today was my first "home alone" day for over a fortnight .. .. which mean't that I could hit the ground running and make serious headway into that crafty "must do list".  

Part of the list called for a stack of teeny, tiny makes .. .. these are my 3.5" square makes which I love making.  It is surprising how much you can squeeze onto them .. .. and I love that they make use of some of those smaller images that are in my collection which can sometimes look lost on my normal sized cards (not that my normal ones are "that" big).  I personally feel quite uncomfortable working with big cards .. .. for me it is a case of "the smaller the better"  LOL!!.

So here we go with my favourite of today's teeny tiny makes (and I have scheduled a couple more for future weeks) .. .. another tick on the new year's resolution list .. .. schedule posts where possible for the days when there is no time to make something new!!

This used:

Sentiment:  LOTV download "Block Sentiments"
Backing Papers:  GCD Studio "Ella Blue"
First Edition:  Nesting Stamp Dies
Spellbinder Nestabilities:  Scallop Circles and Classic Circles
X-Cut Palm Punch:  Small Daisy
Gems
Ribbon
My Trusty Sewing Machine

Lots of other projects worked on today so I am quite chuffed with how today has gone .. .. not very often I say that!

But tomorrow is all about weddings as a few signed proofs dropped through the letterbox today which all need working on.

CHRISTMAS ?!?!?!?

Hi Everyone

I hope you had a good weekend and a happy Monday!  Our wedding fayre was another good one and we met some lovely new happy couples.  

Today "some" of my new year resolutions have come into play (there are sooooo many of them!! LOL!!!)

I have told myself that this year I want November and December to be much calmer than last year .. .. there was so much wedding work that I just didn't have enough time to make as many cards as my customers and I wanted .. .. .. and I have to admit that I actually missed playing with all of my Christmas crafting goodies.

So today I took a bit of colouring with me to my Mum's and then when I got home tonight made the following:

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  Hampton Art Stamps "4611" Rudolph

Backing Papers: My Minds Eye "Joyous"

ProMarkers

Crystal Glamour Dust

Metallic Ribbon

So this little make has covered a few new years resolutions .. .. 

1.  Make Christmas cards ALL year

2.  Use up old paper stacks

3.  Enter more Challenges 

This card was made especially for a brand new fortnightly challenge called "Christmas Kickstart Challenge" which has been started by one of my lovely blog buddies "Dotty Jo"

and the theme for the first challenge is "Rudolph and Friends".

Christmas card number 1 in the box!!!  Yay!!!

JUST TO PUT THE RECORD STRAIGHT .. ...

Hi Everyone

Happy Friday!  The night Mr Heart cooks our fish and chip supper .. .. so Friday's are always extra happy here LOL!!

Before I show you my make of today I feel I must put the record straight regarding my post from yesterday .. .. .. please don't think I drank enough bottles of wine to collect all of those corks!!  Gosh it would take me ages to drink that much wine.  The magazine actually sent me all the corks .. .. .. they had been collecting them over time in readiness for the commission.

The magazine provided the lovely ones with the writing on  .. ..  and I bought a few "plain and boring ones" just to fill a few spaces.

So please don't think I spend all my time with a wine glass in my hand  LOL!!!

Anyway .. .. today called for a birthday card to take to a special Auntie who loves cats and is very much like a second Mum to me.  This is what I delivered to her earlier today along with some flowers:

This used:

Image and Sentiment:  Penny Black "Purr-fect Message" 40-040

Backing Papers:  "Sweet Garden Roses" from The Works

ProMarkers

My Trusty Sewing Machine

Ribbon

and that is me for today!

A wedding weekend coming up for the House of Hearts .. .. including a wedding fayre on Sunday.  No doubt there will be lots of excited brides to meet who got engaged over Christmas.

HOW MUCH WINE DID YOU DRINK?

Hi Everyone

Happy Thursday!

I hope you have had a good day.

So the question is .. .. how much wine did you drink over Christmas and New Year?

Would it have been enough to make one of these using an old picture frame stuck to a piece of hardboard?

a pin board made and decorated with wine bottle corks .. .. .. 

not all supplied by me I hasten to add .. ..hic!!!  LOL!!!

Not the easiest thing for me to photograph . . . the magazine did a much better job

This is a project I worked on for the current issue of Papercraft Inspirations Magazine 

which is now on the shelves 

and as much as I enjoyed the project my favourite part was actually creating the embellishments .. .. particularly this one:

So that is me for today .. .. catch you again when I do.

BEST TYPE

Hi Everyone

Happy Wednesday!  (Is anyone else having to work out what day it is?!?!)

I hope you have had a good day.

Sadly Christmas disappeared back "into" our roof space today .. .. .. .. .. .. and then at the same time "out" came all the wedding fayre hardware ready for using at the weekend.  Our first wedding fayre of 2019.

I surprisingly found time for just a little crafty play today too and came up with this little make using a digi image that I added a sentiment and a bit of sparkle to.

This used:

Image:  Tiddly Inks Digital Image "Typewriter" (linking through I see the image is on offer at the moment for a whole $1 .. .. and it now has some scrummy flowers alongside it too!!!)

Sentiment:  Added to the image using font "CarbonType"

Backing Papers:  The Works "Trendy Blue Lifestyle"

Die-namics Die Set:  Blueprints 14

Josy Rose:  Nail Heads

Diamond Stickles

ProMarker

Washi Tape

and that is it!

So the calm, relaxed and "happy go lucky" days of Christmas are well and truly over now and the "must do list" will be out tomorrow!!  Eeeekkk!!!

Whilst taking my pictures my mind wandered back to a toy typewriter I owned.  One of the old grey Petite Typewriters  .. .. I had hours of fun with that .. .. and it used to have a cool red and black inking ribbon.

I wonder what happened to it!

Catch you again soon.

THINK HAPPY AND BE HAPPY

Hi Everyone

Happy 2019!!

Another sparkly new year has begun .. .. I wonder what this one will hold?

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas .. .. we really enjoyed ours.  The kids came to stay and I even managed to get Mum here for some of Boxing Day!  Yay!!!  The first time since she has been poorly!  

Lots of super rash new year resolutions made by me  .. .. and far too many to list here .. .. but if I only manage to keep one then I think the sentiment on my little "teeny tiny" make of today would be a good one to keep

Everything on my 3.5" card of today was found lying in the little craft pod which was abandoned in a very messy state.. .. but got a "little bit" of tlc today.  Much, much more is definitely needed.

But I will sign off now before the day ends by wishing everyone who reads this a really happy 2019.  I hope it holds everything you are wishing for and even more if possible .. .. and a with a very sincere "thank you" to everyone for all your lovely comments, emails and support over the last year .. .. even though I have been AWOL for so much of it.   You are all so very kind.

Take care and all the best.. ..

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Hi Everyone

I hope everyone is having a very merry Christmas.

A scheduled post from me as by the time this post hopefully goes live, the presents will be open (along with the sherry bottle LOL!!!) and cooking will be well underway.  

I just wanted to wish everyone who calls by my blog a super wonderful and special time.  I hope you manage to make some special memories.

Certainly anyone who has been calling by my blog recently will have had a fruitless journey .. .. and I apologise for that.  Lots and lots of making but unfortunately no time to photograph and post.

It has been a super manic time here especially with weddings .. .. one of which has been so sad.  The "to be" groom was admitted to hospital a week prior to the wedding and unfortunately is still there .. .. .. so not only did the wedding have to be cancelled but he is missing Christmas at home too.  The new year will see us starting their wedding all over again .. ..even though we were just about there and ready to stick down their table plan.  Such a shame!!

I closed the craft room door on a very messy desk, a couple of days ago, and already my fingers are itching to make something!!

Fingers crossed the new year will see a bit more action on the blog front.  But no rash promises.

I will sign off with a Christmas card that I made and shared earlier in the year.  I had it squirreled away to send to my Sister .. ..  it uses artwork from the lovely Sally-Ann of Digistamp Boutique.  Still can't believe her images are no longer available. .. such a shame.  

So that will be me until I have created something new to share .. .. which hopefully won't be too far away.

Have fun!!